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06.52 An Australian woman has described giving birth by torchlight as the superstorm hit New York. Sally Bertouch, 31, was staying with her husband James at a hotel close to NY Langone hospital when she went into labour just before the storm struck. Once at the hospital they describedhow lights were flickering before the power cut out completely. Eventually they were evacuated to Mount Sinai hospital where Sally gave birth to a baby girl named Sophie Deborah Here is an extract from the interview on news.com.au:

Unfortunately, the hospital was in the evacuation zone and it was being slammed by the storm.

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“As we paced the corridors the lights started flickering, then the power went out completely at 8.15pm."

After 16 hours of labour in the middle of a superstorm, they were plunged into darkness.

“There were no monitors, no foetal monitors, all the doctors had glow sticks around their necks. I had a flashlight. Sal was lying in the bed in the dark and the wind,” Mr Bertouch said.

The doctors were forced to do an epidural by torchlight. They used stethoscopes to monitor the baby and Sally.

“It was pretty scary, crazy, apocalyptic weather outside but I felt confident because the doctors and nurses were so confident and in control. They did an amazing job.”

05.40 The National Guard has arrived in Hoboken, a town of around 50,000 in New Jersey, according to AP. The Guard will be using high-wheeled trucks to transport residents out of the most hard-hit areas as well as ferrying in supplies, AP said.

04.23 Volunteers from all over America have been offering their services to those struggling in the wake of the storm. NYC Service, a government initiative, has been deluged with people offering hands for the clean-up operation, medical evaluations over Skype and grief councelling. The NYC Service page on Facebookalready has more than 10,000 followers. The organisation has asked anyone who wants to help to email nycservice@cityhall.nyc.gov

The dramatic homestretch ad for President Obama, running on every network and in all media markets, is a home run, devastating for Mitt Romney.

And, best of all, the president didn’t have to pay for it, or even say, “I approve this message.” It was a total gift — and from a Republican and top Romney surrogate.

02.50 A picture of the New York skyline post-Sandy from a different angle. Photo taken by Claus Guglberger.

Credit: Claus Guglberger

02.10 Airports are starting to reopen and power is trickling back to people across the 17 affected states. John F Kennedy International Airport is to reopen at 7am ET on Wednesday with limited service as will Newark Liberty Airport. The number of households with power outages has also been reduced down to 6.9 million, from 8.2 million earlier.

1.25 Former New York mayor Rudolf Giuiani has said the city will bounce back quickly from the devastation wreaked by the storm due to its "resilience". Speaking in Sydney he said:

Always, whenever these things happened when I was mayor or a private citizen, the real loss here is the loss of human life and unfortunately there has been a significant loss.

The property damage, the loss of profits because businesses have closed, the loss of profits because the stock exchange is closed - you make all that up.

Knowing New York City, where resiliency is written in capital letters, they will more than make that up. But what you can never make up for is the people that have lost their lives.

00.21 More details about those who died during the storm are gradually emerging.

In New York City, a 13-year old girl, named as Angela Dresch, was killed in Tottenville, in Staten Island, after a wave crashed into her family's home and ripped the house apart. Her father George is still missing and her mother Patricia was taken to hospital in critical condition, according to a local news report on slive.com

Angela Dresch Credit: Facebook

Arthur Kasprzak, 28, an off-duty NYPD police officer, was killed in the basement of his home after ushering his girlfriend, child, and friends and relatives to the attic of their home in South Beach, according to slive.com. Police believe he was electricuted by a live wire when he went down into the basement and touched the flood water.

Arthur Kasprzak Credit: NYPD

In Connecticut, a firefighter was killed when a tree fell on his fire engine while he was clearing debris from Judd Road in Easton. He was named as Fire Lt Russ Neary by local media.

23.45 The death toll across the United States has risen again to 48, according to news reports. Eighteen of those are in New York City, Mayor Bloomberg said. The number of households without power is estimated to be 8.2 million.

23.15 (19.15) The National Guard flew over the Jersey Shore earlier today in a Blackhawk helicopter. What they saw below could easily have been mistaken for a war zone.

22.45 (18.45) The Mayor of New York doesn't sound wildly enthusiastic about the possibility of a visit from the President.

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Mike Grynbaum - .&lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com/MikeBloomberg" target="_blank"&gt;@MikeBloomberg&lt;/a&gt; on Obama: &amp;ldquo;We&amp;rsquo;d love to have him, but we have lots of things to do. I&amp;rsquo;m not trying to diss him.&amp;rdquo; &lt;a href="http://t.co/jrvQhDaI" target="_blank"&gt;http://t.co/jrvQhDaI&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/noframe&gt;

Storm damaged cars, their bumpers ripped off and windows smashed, sat scattered in parking lots. Felled trees littered streets and sand, washed up from the beaches, lay three inches thick across sections of the tarmac.

Dawn broke flat and grey over Atlantic City yesterday to reveal a resort town in tatters; in the middle of one road a child's car seat lay upturned and abandoned. On another street, the shreds of torn American flags snapped in a still-stiff breeze.

It was an eerie drive into the deserted, blacked-out city, the winds still strong enough to buffet a saloon car, the only lights visible, dim in the distance, the flashing blue and red of patrol vehicles, guarding block after block of empty, abandoned properties.

And at the coast itself, the most arresting sight of all - Atlantic City's venerable old boardwalk smashed to pieces and deposited inland in tangled piles of lumber. Until Monday evening, it had stretched for some seven miles around the New Jersey shoreline. Not any more.

21.50 (17.50) Our video desk caught up with two New Yorkers earlier who said that Sandy, unlike Irene, lived up to expectations.

21.25 (17.25) Here's the conclusion to the President's remarks at the Red Cross headquarters a little earlier.

The final message I’d just say is during the darkness of the storm, I think we also saw what’s brightest in America. I think all of us obviously have been shocked by the force of Mother Nature as we watch it on television. At the same time, we’ve also seen nurses at NYU Hospital carrying fragile newborns to safety. We’ve seen incredibly brave firefighters in Queens, waist-deep in water, battling infernos and rescuing people in boats.

One of my favorite stories is down in North Carolina, the Coast Guard going out to save a sinking ship. They sent a rescue swimmer out, and the rescue swimmer said, “Hi, I’m Dan. I understand you guys need a ride.” That kind of spirit of resilience and strength, but most importantly looking out for one another, that's why we always bounce back from these kinds of disasters.

21.10 (17.10) This is why it's going to take several days before New York's subways can re-open. This picture, put out by Governor Cuomo's office, shows Whitehall subway station.

20.55 (16.55) Sandy burst onto land in New Jersey last night and quickly unraveled from a hurricane into a slightly less strong but more widespread post-tropical storm. But where is it now?

The latest update from the National Weather Service puts it "slowly moving westward while weakening towards southern Pennsylvania" as it begins to trudge north towards upstate New York. Its wind speed as of a few hours ago was at 45 mph - fast but nowhere near hurricane speed.

Storm warnings remain in effect from Virginia all the way up the coast to Massachusetts as well as on the Great Lakes.

20.45 (16.45) My colleagues Jon Swaine and Peter Foster report that Obama's tour of New Jersey will have an unlikely supporting cast member.

Barack Obama will tomorrow tour storm-ravaged New Jersey with one of Mitt Romney's closest political allies, as the Republican presidential challenger struggles to regain a foothold in the final days of an election race now overshadowed by the disaster.

Having scrapped another day of re-election campaigning, the US President will meet victims and emergency staff alongside Chris Christie, the state's Republican governor, while Mr Romney attempts in Florida to resume the final week of his six-year quest for the White House.

Mr Christie, who was shortlisted to be Mr Romney's vice-presidential candidate and has been one of the President's sharpest critics, fuelled Republican fears that focus on the storm's aftermath could damage their election prospects, by heaping praise on Mr Obama's handling of the crisis.

"The President has been all over this, and he deserves great credit," he told MSNBC yesterday. "He gave me his number at the White House and told me to call him if I needed anything, and he absolutely means it. It's been very good working with the President and his administration."

20.30 (16.30) The storm has obviously caused major problems for both campaigns but it's also disrupted polling. Most polls are done by placing hundreds if not thousands of calls into landlines and asking residents who they're voting for. Obviously that's a feat that becomes more difficult when there are mass power outages.

Gallup cancelled its daily polling today and yesterday. We're waiting to find out if will go ahead tomorrow.

20.20 (16.20) Barbara McMahon caught up with Tom Owens, a father of three who ignored mandatory evacuation warnings but escaped unharmed with his family from Breezy Point, Queens. Here's her interview:

20.05 (16.05) Twitter is lighting up with this amazing photograph taken by Inga Sarda-Sorensen, a freelance photographer in New York.

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19.50 (15.50) The federal government will be back open for business tomorrow morning.

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Reuters Top News - Federal agencies in Washington will be open on Wednesday, U.S. government says.&lt;/noframe&gt;

Just anecdotally: from our office three blocks from the White House it's drizzling unpleasantly but the wind has died down and you're beginning to see some people back on the streets.

19.30 (15.30)James Orr is on the streets of Atlantic City, where the National Guard are on patrol.

The emergency response to the storm in Atlantic City is nothing short of remarkable. Already JCBs are working hard to clear the debris. A convoy of trucks waits while timber and sand, spread across roads by the storm surge, is loaded. It will take time but they're not hanging around.

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19.18 (15.18) Obama will travel to New Jersey tomorrow where he'll meet with Governor Chris Christie - a Republican and a major Romney backer - and will visit some of the disaster sites.

19.15 (15.15) Students and teachers from a school in Leicester describe being stuck in New York.

18.47 (14.47) President Barack Obama delivered a short statement yesterday at the headquarters of the international Red Cross, telling staff: "This storm is not over yet."

He said that people on the eastern seaboard had suffered "extraordinary" hardship seen over the last 24 hours but praised the "resilience" of those in the storm's path.

"Obviously this is something that is heartbreaking for the entire nation," he said. The President told people in affected states that "America is with you".

Mr Obama said that he had ordered government officials to pursue a policy of ""no bureaucracy, no red tape" as they rushed through disaster relief.

18.35 (14.35) The Associated Press is now putting the total death toll at 38 since yesterday. Worth remembering that the initial hurricane also killed 69 people across the Caribbean for a total toll of 107.

18.30 (14.30) While Sandy brought destruction and blackouts to New Jersey and New York, it swept a freak blizzard into West Virginia. Check out our latest picture gallery.

An ambulance is stuck in over a foot of snow near Belington, West Virginia. Superstorm Sandy buried parts of West Virginia under more than a foot of snow, cutting power to at least 264,000 customers and closing dozens of roads. Picture: Robert Ray/AP

18.25 (14.25) Confirmation now that the President is at the headquarters of the Red Cross, just a few blocks west of the White House, where he'll make a statement on the storm.

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Ed Henry - The President has arrived at the HQ of the Red Cross, statement coming shortly &lt;a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Sandy" target="_blank"&gt;#Sandy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/noframe&gt;

18.20 (14.20) Obama's motorcade has just left the White House but his aides are refusing to tell travelling reporters where they are headed. Speculation that he's heading for the Red Cross building in Washington DC.

18.10 (14.10)Con Edison is now reporting that it will have power to all of Manhattan and Brooklyn within four days. Other areas in New York, where power lines run overhead, could be more than a week.

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Anthony De Rosa - RT &lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com/felixsalmon" target="_blank"&gt;@felixsalmon&lt;/a&gt;: Better than I'd feared RT &lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com/ConEdison" target="_blank"&gt;@ConEdison&lt;/a&gt;: Those in Bk and Manhattan should have power back w/in 4 days.&lt;/noframe&gt;

18.01 (14.01) The American Red Cross just told James Orr that they housed 11,000 people in 258 shelters across 16 states last night. Fantastic work.

18.00 (14.00) The President's travel pool, the small group of reporters that moves with him at all times, has just been alerted to prepare for a possible departure, meaning Obama may be getting ready to go visit one of the disaster zones.

17.55 (13.55)AFP puts the death toll at 32 with this breakdown by state:

&lt;noframes&gt;Interactive chart: Deaths by state&lt;/noframes&gt;

The AP puts the toll one higher at 33.

17.40 (13.40) James Orr is on the scene in Atlantic City.

I'm standing next to a caged playground where timber struts lie in piles more than 6ft high. Benches are upturned and loose cables dangle menacingly from wooden pylons. Children are being taken out onto the beach by their parents to witness the aftermath.

One fireman I spoke to said getting to a series of small electrical fires last night was a massive task because of the flooding. They sometimes had to leave their vehicles and walk several blocks carrying all their kit. Fortunately the flooding has now all but gone in most areas.

17.35 (13.35) During a press conference yesterday Chris Christie took aim at Lorenzo Langford, the Mayor of Atlantic City, who he accused of initially trying to dissuade people from evacuating in the hours before the storm hit. He later took to Twitter to repeat the point.

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Governor Christie - I am very disappointed in those who did not listen to my order to evacuate.&lt;/noframe&gt;

Langford fired back this morning telling NBC that the governor was wrong in his criticism.

I think it's reprehensible that he would stoop to the level to try and make a political situation out of something that is so serious as this situation is right now

17.25 (13.25) A Pennsylvania woman faces charges that include risking a catastrophe after she jumped into a raging creek to "save" a couple dozen wild ducks, the Associated Press reports.

Southern Regional Police in York County said Justina Laniewski went into the Codorus Creek in Glen Rock on Monday evening, and her toddler started to follow her.

A neighbor grabbed the child, but it took firefighters from a nearby station to rescue Laniewski from neck-high waters. She was also charged with reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness.

17.15 (13.15) We have a new picture gallery up of the destruction in New Jersey. Governor Chris Christie is flying reporters over the scene now so they can report on the scale of the damage.

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17.05 (13.05) Barbara McMahon has been speaking to some of the residents of Breezy Point, Queens, as they try to make sense of last night's fire.

"The whole neighbourhood's gone!" exclaimed Arthur Holstrom as he surveyed the scene of a devastating fire that razed dozens of houses to the ground in the beachshore community of Breezy Point in Queens during the height of the hurricane. The air was filled with the acrid smell of smoke, personal belongings were strewn everywhere and the ruins of some homes were still smouldering.

The shock at the ferocity of Sandy was visible in people's faces as a few ventured out in the still driving rain and high winds. "We were spared," said dentist Tom de Maria his voice choking up. "But all these people have lost their homes. Its crazy. I've never seen anything as bad as this."

A woman who wouldn't give her name said angrily that the neighbourhood had not been given enouh resources to ride out the storm. "We're a small community of 4,000 souls. Bloomberg was keeping all his firepower for Manhattan," she claimed.

At the St Thomas Moore Church, which was still flooded today one family took shelter at 3am, their children sleeping on wooden pews. Tom and Kathleen Owens and their children aged one to six remained in their home at Breezy Point despite being told to go. "I regret that. If I could do it differently I'd have listened to the warnings. I'd have gone," said Mr Owens.

Footage of the fire last night

16.55 (12.55) The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq will both reopen tomorrow as Wall St begins to get back to work.

16.52 (12.52) Around 60 people are trapped on Fire Island, a sliver of land off the coast of Long Island, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Some of the people there refused to obey an evacuation order and are now stuck because the regular ferry service is suspended. Officials said some homes have been destroyed but there are no reports of injuries.

The Coast Guard is planning to fly over and assess the damage and work out whether the one road to the island can be reopened or if boats will have to be sent in to help the stranded residents.

16.40 (12.40)Mark Hughes has been assesssing the damage at the South Street Seaport in southern Manhattan and sends this picture of a wrecked bar.

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16.35 (12.35) New York's buses will start running again at 5pm as the city takes its first step towards restoring mass transit. Fees will be waived but it's still a long way short of getting the subways, New York's life lines, open again.

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: MTA - The MTA will restore limited bus service today at 5pm, with more service coming tomorrow. Fares will be waived for the time being. &lt;a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=sandy" target="_blank"&gt;#sandy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/noframe&gt;

16.32 (12.32) We mentioned earlier that a levy in northern New Jersey had breached. One of the three towns affected was Little Ferry, home to around 11,000 people and now three-quarters underwater. Ralph Verdi, Little Ferry's Chief of Police, has just been on CNN saying that the town has been overrun by the water and is nearly completely evacuated.

I've been a police officer for for 33 years and I've never seen this type of devastation from flooding.

16.30 (12.30) In little fits and starts the national conversation is beginning to turn away from the storm and back to next week's election. The Romney campaign has announced it is going to press ahead with its events in Florida tomorrow.

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Matt Viser - Romney campaign just announced his three rallies tomorrow in Florida. Post storm, seems like full steam ahead for their campaign.&lt;/noframe&gt;

It's incredible just how far the storm surge carried parts of the old boardwalk. I'm seeing huge sections, some 30ft long, washed up in the middle of the street four blocks from the coast. Other debris lies everywhere. TVs, a sofa, bins, bricks and smashed street signs.

16.05 (12.05)Peter Foster, our US editor, has been on an odyssey from Florida into the storm's path in Pennsylvania, where he found that the destruction on the coast has not yet been replicated inland.

After a flight from Orlando, Florida and a drive of nearly 400 miles from Cincinnati, Ohio, I've just reached the town of Altoona in Pennsylvania, which is an old railroad town of 46,000 people in the Allegheny Mountains east of Pittsburgh. The town had a rough night, but mercifully, nothing like as bad as in New York.

I've just been on the phone with Margaret Moses, news editor of the Altoona Mirror, who says that the biggest problem is power cuts, with as many as 10,000 homes without electricity. There was also damage to one building - which shed its brick facade - and on-going issues with fallen trees and telegraph poles and localised flooding and road closures as the water pours down off the hills.

All that said, Ms Moses, says the worst has passed and the town has got off pretty lightly: "I don’t anticipate we’re going to get much worse than we have now. Winds might pick up a little bit later tonight, but certainly nothing like yesterday."

On that basis, it seems as if the fears that the storm might intensify as it went overland and combined with a cold front coming in from the west has not come to pass.

16.00 (12.00) The latest death toll has reached 33 people across seven states, according to the Associated Press. Of those 17 were in New York, four in Pennsylvania and three in New Jersey.

15.55 (11.55) If you want evidence that American politicians are capable of putting party politics aside (even if only briefly) in the face of disaster then consider Republican Chris Christie's claim that President Obama's administration has been doing a "wonderful" job dealing with Sandy.

These are the more usual, and far less glowing, terms he uses to describe the President:

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15.45 (11.45) The White House has just announced Obama has cancelled a third day of campaign events in order to stay in Washington and focus on the storm.

15.40 (11.40) Barbara McMahon has just come from the scene in Queens. Over a crackly phone line she describes the scale of the destruction:

It's absolutely unbelievable. The devastation was just extraordinary. Between 75 and 140 homes appear to have gone with flames just jumping from house to another. Now there are just smouldering homes and foundations and people wandering around looking stunned and in tears. The flooding continues and weather conditions are terrible. The fire brigade are searching through the remains for any bodies but, mercifully, it doesn't seem like anyone has been killed.

15.10 (11.10) Bloomberg says the crane dangling above 57th street is "currently stable" but that it can't be pulled back until the wind speeds die down. New York's public schools will remain closed tomorrow while public transport remains shut and the city works to get back to business. Around 6,100 people have taken advantage of city's 76 shelters.

We will get through the days ahead by doing what we always do in tough times: by standing together should-to-shoulder ready to help a neighbour, comfort a stranger and get the city we love back on its feet.

15.10 (11.10)Mayor Bloomberg says the storm has left New York but that there are many days of work ahead: "This was a devastating storm, perhaps the worse we've ever experienced." He says there 23 serious fires across the city and that he cannot confirm that there we no lives lost. He says the two main priorities are restoring power and re-opening the city's public transport. "The damage we suffered across the city was extensive and will not be repaired overnight".

He says that the damage to the subways was the worst in 108 years, while Con Edison, the power company, says it has taken an "unprecedented" hit to its grid. Right now 750,000 people are without power.

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Jim Roberts - Bloomberg exec order: cab drivers will be able to pick up "multiple passengers even if a passenger is already in the cab."&lt;/noframe&gt;

14.48 (10.48) Of the many long-term impacts of Sandy, one of the most serious is damage to drinking water. Maryland is already grappling with the problem after power went out at a sewage treatment plant in Howard Country, causing millions of gallons of sewage to pour into the Little Patuxent River, according to the Baltimore Sun.

14.25 (10.25)Governor Christie says it took eight days to restore full power after Hurricane Irene - it may take longer this time. He says 5,500 people are in shelters and that 29 hospitals across the state have lost power. There is "major damage" to the state's rail lines and "no county has been spared" damage from falling trees. It will take another 24 to 48 hours to fully assess the damage.

His conclusion: the damage to the Jersey Shore is "beyond anything I thought I would ever see".

"The level of devastation at the Jersey Shore is unthinkable," he said.

14.18 (10.18) Governor Christie says there are currently 2.4 million New Jersey households without power, twice as many as Hurricane Irene. He tells residents to avoid travel unless "absolutely necessary".

14.14 (10.15) New Jersey governor Chris Christie is currently holding a press briefing, while New York's Mayor Bloomberg is also due to update the public.

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Governor Christie - For all those who have been affected by &lt;a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Sandy" target="_blank"&gt;#Sandy&lt;/a&gt;, we are with you as we all work to recover over the coming weeks.&lt;/noframe&gt;

13.50 (09.50) Raf Sanchez takes a look at the political ramifications of the storm:

We are exactly one week from the election and yet so far the political truce is holding as everyone focuses on the storm. But liberal trigger fingers are itching to start sniping at Romney over his suggestion that FEMA, the federal agency that deals with natural disasters, could be sent broken up and turned into smaller state agencies or else privatised altogether.

During the Republican primaries he was asked about FEMA's budget and said: "Every time you have the occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that's the right direction and if you can go even further, and send it back to the private sector, that's even better."

Yesterday, his campaign insisted it would not scrap FEMA but repeated its emphasis on a local, rather than national, response. "Governor Romney believes that states should be in charge of emergency management in responding to storms and other natural disasters in their jurisdictions," a spokesman said.

The New York Times fired the first shot in an editorial this morning, warning: "Disaster coordination is one of the most vital functions of 'big government', which is why Mitt Romney wants to eliminate it."

When the rains clear it will be interesting to see if the Obama campaign uses the same attack.

13.34 (09.34) A crane collapsed in New York yesterday during superstorm Sandy. Here is the video of the moment it happened:

13.30 (09.30) Firefighters in boats rescued more than 25 people from 50 homes in a New York neighbourhood that were destroyed by a mass blaze after superstorm Sandy, officials said Tuesday.

AFP reports that firefighters said it was "a miracle" that only two minor injuries were reported after the blaze left the Breezy Point district of Queens a smouldering tangle of wood and metal. Here is a photograph of the scene:

AP Photo/Frank Franklin II

13.16 (09.16) Raf Sanchez has sent this report from a "deserted" Washington DC:

The streets of the American capital remain deserted here for a second day in a row. The federal government is still shuttered, meaning hundreds of thousands of state employees and contractors are at home and the businesses that serve them are closed. While the White House, the Department of Defence and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have been working through the night, Congress will hold only a symbolic session today.

13.13 (09.13) From New Jersey governor Chris Christie:

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Governor Christie - The cost of this storm is incalculable at this point.&lt;/noframe&gt;

12.47 (08.47) London Mayor Boris Johnson has praised the New York authorities for being "well-prepared" ahead of superstorm Sandy. He said:

They took it very, very seriously and I think, had they not taken it so seriously, the consequences might have been even worse.

I do think, as far as I'm able to tell, the New York authorities have prepared extremely well.

12.45 (08.45) More from Mark Hughes in New York:

I've just seen an underground car park where seven cars are just piled on top of each other. It looks like the garage flooded and the cars piled up as they were swept out. It's the most destructive thing I've seen yet. Just prior to that I saw a couple of shops on Wall St had been smashed and all the goods were scattered across the road.

12.43 (08.43) AP is reporting the death toll along the US East Coast has risen to "at least 17".

12.35 (08.35) Meanwhile, James Orr has been talking to firefighters in Atlantic City:

Atlantic City Firefighter Joe Biscieglia, 31, was part of a rescue team of five last night during a 38-hour shift. He said: "the fire department had 400 calls for help yesterday. There were places in five to six feet of water that even we couldn't get through in an army truck. We rescued one family off a two story roof. Their ceiling had collapsed."

12.33 (08.33) While Barbara McMahon sends this update on the road in Manhattan:

Driving east in Manhattan and attempting to get to Queens, I'm amazed by the number of trees that have snapped like broken twigs. A giant plane tree has smahed onto cars on 90th street, a quiet street full of brownstones. Other trees down near Natural History Museum. Power still out in huge swathe of lower Manhattan. Midtown Tunnel shut. Trying to get over Williamaburg Bridge. Emergency vehicles everywhere. Traffic lights out. People are venturing out and seem stunned by scale of the damage.

12.30 (08.30) This report has been called in from Mark Hughes in New York:

I'm down at the tip of lower Manhattan at what's known as the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel. The tunnel has a clearing of 12ft 7in and the entire thing is underwater. Last night huge trucks were parked at either end of the tunnel to stop cars driving through - both trucks are completely underwater. I spoke to the guy who parked the trucks last night, he couldn't believe it now and he said the water had moved a truck overnight.

There's chaos down here, there's debris everywhere, everything's broken. The weather is better - there is a light breeze and drizzle. But it's just a mess.

It was very difficult to get a taxi this morning, there are no cars on the street. The streets are also covered in oil and the streets are very slippery. I think the oil from cars in flooded underground car parks is seeping out - it doesn't smell very nice.

Here is a picture of the tunnel:

12.07 (08.07) 'I knew this would come in handy one day'... a jet skier navigates floodwaters in New Jersey.

12.04 (08.04) John Constantine makes his way out of his house in Andover, Massachusetts, after being hit by superstorm Sandy.

12.01 (08.01) Almost 6,000 flights to/from/within the US have been cancelled today, according to flight tracking service FlightAware.com.

11.36 (07.36) A New York update from Richard Blackden:

Lower Manhattan has woken up to find it's without power. It looks like anywhere below about 28th Street is without power. Apart from the odd vehicle, police cars are the only traffic on Broadway. There are a few trees down, but otherwise the damage - at least at first glance - does not look as bad as feared.

The most serious problem confronting lower Manhattan is the lack of power.

11.20 (07.20) The Goldman Sachs building still had its lights blazing in New York last night... car in front not doing as well.

(via @storyful and @emilybell)

11.07 (07.07) An update from our man in New Jersey, James Orr:

It's dark and wet as I head into Atlantic City. The road in is littered with debris and the rain is still coming down. Large flooded areas make driving difficult. Everywhere is black and deserted.

... The wind is still driving in Atlantic City. Gusts are strong enough to knock you off your feet. The area is empty as it gets light and I've just seen a section of the boardwalk which is complete demolished. On the coast the waves are still raging. I'm a surfer but there's no way I'd paddle out in that.

11.00 (07.00) Here are some of the front pages that the US is waking up to this morning:

10.49 (06.49) Hundreds of people are being evacuated after a levee broke in northern New Jersey. Bergen County executive chief of staff Jeanne Baratta has said the entire town of Moonachie is under water and as many as 1,000 people could need to be evacuated, according to AP.

My bathtub is filled with water and my cupboard is stocked with all the cans I could take as people elbowed their way through the non-perishable section of my local supermarket yesterday.

My makeshift bed for the night consists of my couch cushions lined up in the hallway of my apartment, the only area in my 700-square-foot studio that isn't exposed to windows.

10.28 (06.28) A video showing the snowfall in West Virginia and Tennessee:

10.22 (06.22) A sobering thought from ABC anchor Chris Cuomo:

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Chris Cuomo - New York has a wounded feel to it that reminds of our darkest day...but sandy's damage can and will be fixed. We have suffered much worse&lt;/noframe&gt;

10.18 (06.18) A levee broke in northern New Jersey on Tuesday, flooding the towns of Moonachie, Little Ferry and Carlstadt with 4 to 5 feet of water in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, officials told Reuters.

"We are in rescue mode," said Jeanne Baratta, chief of the Bergen County Executive. There were no reports of fatalities as of yet, she said.

Baratta said the three towns had been "devastated" by the flood of water.

10.05 (06.05) Some incredible mobile footage of trees coming down on a suburban street in New York from YouTube:

09.55 (05.55) Some sage advice from the American Red Cross of Eastern Massachusetts:

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: RedCrossEasternMA - Power out? Driving for coffee? Turn around when you see puddles -- you don't know how deep they are. Take another route&lt;/noframe&gt;

09.47 (05.47) Dramatic footage from across the US east coast captures the damage and chaos inflicted by superstorm Sandy:

09.43 (05.43) Barack Obama has declared a 'major disaster' in New York state after the storm, according to AFP reports.

09.30 (05.30) A NASA image of the US East Coast, taken at midnight on October 29.

Credit: REUTERS/NASA

09.25 (05.25) Sky News is reporting at least 16 people have died in the US and Canda durng superstorm Sandy.

09.15 (05.15)84 flights between London and the US East Coast have been cancelled today from Heathrow, according to an airport spokesman.

09.10 (05.10) Here is the latest update from theNational Hurricane Center on post-tropical cyclone Sandy, which is moving westward across southern Pennsylvania with winds of 65mph and is expected to move into Canada on Wednesday:

LOCATION...40.5N 77.0W

ABOUT 15 MILES...24 KM...E OF YORK PENNSYLVANIA.

ABOUT 90 MILES...145 KM...W OF PHILADELPHIA PENNSYLVANIA.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...65 MPH...105 KM/H

PRESENT MOVEMENT...WNW OR 295 DEGREES AT 15 MPH...24 KM/H

MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...960 MB...28.35 INCHES

09.05 (05.05) Reuters reporting that 6.8 million people are currently without power following the arrival of superstorm Sandy.

08.34 (04.34) A still from the scene at the huge fire in the Breezy Point area of Queens, New York, from a video byNBC News:

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Mike Bettes - Snowing in Dayton, Columbus, &amp;amp; Cincinnati! Avg date of first measurable snow is late November! Last snow on Halloween was 1993 Superstorm.&lt;/noframe&gt;

08.20 (04.20) 200 firefighters are on the ground in the Breezy Point area of Queens in New York, fighting a blaze that has destroyed at least 50 houses. There have been reports of trapped civilians but at the moment, two people are reported to have suffered minor injuries.

08.05 (04.05) New York's mayor Michael Bloomberg has held a press conference, telling the city's residents to stay in their homes. Here is the video:

08.00 (04.00) As Sandy made its way toward land, it converged with a cold-weather system to bring not only rain and high wind, but snow too. This picture is from Beckley, West Virginia, as Hurricane Sandy wheeled toward land.

07.55 (03.55) Rising water, caused by Hurricane Sandy, rushes into a subterranian parking garage in the Financial District of New York (GETTY)

07.40 (03.40) This is a stunning wind map of the US from Hint.fm - visit their websiteto see the animated version.

07.32 (03.32) Superstorm Sandy will close stock markets for a second day on Tuesday and possibly Wednesday. NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq, the largest two US exchange operators, said they intend to reopen Wednesday, conditions permitting. The bond markets will also close on Tuesday, with traders aiming to reopen on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

07.20 (03.20) Off North Carolina, the US Coast Guard has rescued 14 of the 16 crew members who abandoned the replica ship HMS Bounty, using helicopters to lift them from life rafts. The Coast Guard later recovered the body of Claudene Christian, 42, while continuing to search for the 63-year-old captain of the ship, Robin Walbridge. The ship sank in 18-foot (5.5 meters) seas.

Sandy made landfall in New Jersey at 8pm local time (midnight GMT), leaving Atlantic City underwater, and hurling a record-breaking 13-foot wall of seawater at New York City.

A spectacular explosion occurred at a power sub-station in Manhattan and 250,000 people there were plunged into darkness.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it was a "once in a long time storm," and that the public was making 10,000 emergency 911 calls every 30 minutes.

Sandy was expected to cause up to $20 billion in damage, making it one of the costliest natural disasters in US history.

07.03 (03.03) Power and back-up generators have failed at New York University hospital, with patients being taken elsewhere for care.

AP report that dozens of ambulances were lined up around the block outside New York University Tisch Hospital as doctors and nurses began the slow process of evacuation.

06.54 (02.54) Surging seawater forced ashore by superstorm Sandy flooded seven New York subway tunnels and six bus garages in the worst disaster in the history of the city's transport system, the network's chief said.

"The New York City subway system is 108 years old, but it has never faced a disaster as devastating as what we experienced last night," said Joseph Lhota, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

"Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on our entire transportation system, in every borough and county of the region. It has brought down trees, ripped out power and inundated tunnels, rail yards and bus depots," he said.

"All of us at the MTA are committed to restoring the system as quickly as we can to help bring New York back to normal."

06.40 (02.40) A still taken from a surveillance camera capturing footage of water engulfing an underground station in Hoboken, N.J.

06.35 (02.35) In New Jersey, Exelon Corp has declared an alert around its Oyster Creek nuclear power plant due to rising waters, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said. Officials said if waters rise further, they may be forced to use emergency water supplies from a fire hose to cool spent uranium fuel rods.

The alert - the second lowest of four NRC action levels - came after water levels at the plant rose by more than 6.5 feet (2 meters), potentially affecting the pumps that circulate water through the plant, an NRC spokesman said.

06.25 (02.25) Here is a picture of the New York skyline - Reuters report 588,000 people in the city are without power:

06.20 (02.20) At least 13 people have been killed in the US and millions are without power this morning following the landfall of Superstorm Sandy in New Jersey.

It has been downgraded from a Category 1 hurricane to a tropical storm but has cause widespread flooding and more than 5.7 million people are without power across the US East Coast.

06.15 (02.15) Good morning and welcome to our live coverage after Superstorm Sandy slammed into the New Jersey coastline overnight and sent a record-breaking 13ft surge of seawater at New York City.